On September 24-26th, Westside Cheerleading hosted their biggest fundraising event of the year, the Little Warrior Cheer Clinic. During the week, participants in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade across Westside’s elementary schools met at Oakdale Elementary. Westside High School cheerleaders taught the little cheerleaders their favorite Westside cheers and chants. There were a total of 220 elementary students who participated in the clinic this year. At the end of the week, the little cheerleaders met the high school cheerleaders to cheer on the sidelines for the first half of the home football game against Omaha Central High School. 

Jessica Lage, the Westside Cheer program manager, put in a lot of work to make this another successful clinic. 

“The purpose of the Little Warrior Cheer Clinic is to bring the Westside community together…. It is amazing to see so many elementary students excited to return year after year.

That impact was evident on the faces of the many potential future Warrior cheerleaders. All 220 of them brought their energy and Warrior spirit to Phelps Field.

Goldie Hook is a first grader at Loveland Elementary who participated in the Little Cheer Clinic this year. According to her mom, Mary Clare Sweet, Goldie had a great time. 

After the game, Goldie and her sister Meadow both agreed that they felt like real Westside cheerleaders. 

Another important purpose of the Little Warrior Cheer Clinic is to raise money to support Westside’s cheer program. 

“The Cheer program is a $0 budget sport/activity which means we have to fundraise for anything we may want for the program. For example, last year our funds were used to pay for cheer mats. This year, the program purchased new pink Poms for the entire program for the month of October and we will use those funds to cover a portion of those among other things. Last year we also donated 10% of our earnings to the Buffet Cancer Center for Patient Advocacy and we plan to do the same this year,” Lage said.